Carlsbad shooting suspect had troubled past

Brendan O'Rourke was convicted in 2002 of phone harassment after calling a woman 228 calls in 5 days

CARLSBAD  Brendan Liam O’Rourke has only one minor brush with the law — a misdemeanor telephone harassment case in Illinois — but his victim wasn’t surprised to learn he is accused of going on a shooting rampage Friday at a Carlsbad elementary school.

When O’Rourke got mad at Bonnie Ramirez and her son in 2002, he started calling them 20 to 30 times a day. At one point, he called her 228 times over five days.

“He was very, very disturbed,” Ramirez, 68, said Tuesday from her Springfield, Ill., home.

The details about the harassment case and other aspects of O’Rourke’s life are beginning to emerge as police put together a case against him for the Kelly Elementary shooting that ended with two girls, ages 6 and 7, wounded. Both are out of the hospital and recovering.

O’Rourke, 41, is set to be arraigned today in Vista Superior Court on six counts of attempted murder for each of the rounds fired and another count for allegedly pointing the empty gun at a school staffer and pulling the trigger.

The case has drawn national media attention, which is how Ramirez said she learned about the shooting and recognized O’Rourke’s name.

Eight years ago, he was her son’s roommate in Springfield. Ramirez said after O’Rourke was fired from an insurance company where he worked with computers, he fell into a deep depression.

Carlsbad police said that when they went into O’Rourke’s apartment in Oceanside after Friday’s shooting they found the walls spray painted with the words “destroy” and “Christian,” and writings indicating he was angry with the insurance companies AIG and State Farm.

Ramirez said her son tried to get O’Rourke help at a hospital, but nothing was done for him. The son asked O’Rourke to move out, and then the telephone calls started — first to her son and then to Ramirez.

Sometimes O’Rourke would just hang up. Other times, Ramirez said, he would say terrible things.

She had recently lost a son to suicide, she said. “On Mother’s Day, (O’Rourke) called and told me my son was dead because of me.”

A tracer was placed on her phone, and it recorded the 228 calls from O’Rourke in five days. He was arrested and later pleaded guilty to making harassing telephone calls. He was sentenced to one year probation and fined $300.

Police have not determined a motive for the rampage at Kelly Elementary. So far, no connection between O’Rourke and the school has been established.

Carlsbad Police Lt. Kelly Cain said O’Rourke worked as a phone or computer technician at NTN Communications Inc., a video entertainment firm in Carlsbad that installs games and video equipment in bars and restaurants. The business is about two miles south of the school.

Michele Hincks, the company’s vice president of marketing, confirmed O’Rourke’s employment but declined to say what his job was.

“We are cooperating fully with police, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the two little girls and all those at Kelly Elementary,” she said.